


A Collection of Drabbles

by wasureneba



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2017-12-24 23:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasureneba/pseuds/wasureneba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This work is serving as a repository for Harry Potter drabbles that are really rather too short to be all alone. Strength in numbers, and all that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Under the Peach Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "James and the Giant Peach"

James sits under the tree in his parents' backyard, peach in hand. The peaches from this tree are always large, and right now they are ripe. He bites into the peach, and its juice dribbles down his chin, sticky and sweet. He keeps his eyes on the sky, wiping the juice off. Sirius's hastily scribbled note arrived fifteen minutes ago, and Sirius should be here shortly. When he gets here, James will place a peach in his hand and tell him that his family are complete, utter fools for not being proud of a son like him.


	2. Getting Hagrid in Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Who doesn't love Nifflers?"

Lee Jordan had a Niffler under each arm. They were quiet. On each wrist he wore a gold bangle, borrowed from Katie; the Nifflers snuffled contentedly at the jewelry, their noses pressed up against the metal. He crept carefully around the outside of the castle. It was dinnertime; the whole school should be in the Great Hall. His fingers trembled as he levitated the Nifflers. A minute later, they had reached the window.

By the time he made his way back up to Gryffindor Tower, stomach beginning to complain about the lack of dinner, his whole body was shaking.


	3. In the Middle of the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Albus Dumbledore"

Albus poured his cup of midnight tea and placed it on the small table next to his armchair. He sat back, fingers steepled under his chin, and stared at the Pensieve sitting in its cabinet. It was cast in shadow, the firelight dancing feebly over its surface like an old woman no longer light-footed. Some day, he knew, that device would reveal to him the secrets that he searched for so desperately. For now, it taunted him, a living memory of broken memories. 

He sat, deep in thought, and his tea went cold.


	4. Everything Has Changed, and Nothing Has Changed At All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Luna Lovegood"

Luna reads the _Daily Prophet_ every day of her seventh year. She has decided that it is a mirror. In its pages the wizarding world fakes revolution, but she can see the same crookedness, the same censure and limitations, when she reads between the _Prophet_ 's lines, and she knows that Shacklebolt's efforts are just a new coat of paint on a dirty wall. She feels rage taking hold of her guts. 

Every day, she charms the paper into the shape of a phoenix, and watches it burn.


	5. All the Wasted Time in Between

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Petunia's diary"

At the age of forty-three, Petunia reads the diary she wrote when she was fifteen. She spends the whole afternoon going through the diary, reliving memories, ruminating on the transition between her fifteen and forty-three year-old selves, and as she puts the chicken in the oven to bake before Vernon and Dudders get home, she starts weeping. Fifteen year old Petunia didn't know that her sister would be dead in less than a decade, or that forty-three year old Petunia would be just starting to grieve the loss, and all the wasted time in between.


	6. The Unrecorded Superstitions of the Poltergeist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Peeves"

Peeves was a poltergeist. As a poltergeist, he was fundamentally incapable of experiencing things like _love_ and _loss_ and _despair_. Poltergeists are made of trickery and vengeance, and nothing else.

Still, Peeves avoided the end of the seventh-floor corridor near the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy. If anyone could have ever wheedled truth out of a poltergeist (not to be done), he would have explained simply that a great mischief had died there, and that such places are anathema to a poltergeist.


	7. A Secret Taste for Snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Filch really likes snow"

Filch dislikes dirt. He hates slush, and he positively loathes mud. Even outside of the castle, he finds himself gravitating towards gravel and stone paths, and away from grassy walkways, finds himself headed towards buildings instead of gardens. He makes no particular effort to hide this distaste; expressing such distaste is nearly a professional requirement for a good caretaker.

Secretly, though, he waits for the Christmas holiday, when he walks outside and tramps through the snow, shedding white fluff in the Entrance Hall when he returns. He loves forgoing the mop bucket for a scattering of fresh, clean snow.


	8. The Time James Potter Changed the Gryffindor Password

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "The Fat Lady won't let someone in."

"NO!" the Fat Lady shouted. "I will not let you in!"

"Now, really---"

"NO! Do you think I may be taken for a fool? No password, no entrance!"

"---I do think that the last password change was really quite exceptional, out of order, one might say---"

"It doesn't matter. No password, no entrance! Other portraits may be lackadaisical, but I take my job seriously!"

"Speaking of jobs, it is incumbent upon me to remind you that---"

"Are you threatening me?"

"---your job happens to rest upon---"

"You're---"

"Oh, hello, Professor McGonagall."

. . .

"Hello, Pettigrew."

"Ginger Newt. See you in class, Professor."


	9. Acceptance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Butterbeer"

Hermione knows she has been accepted when Molly teaches her how to brew butterbeer. Molly has taught none of the boys, and not even Ginny. "You don't have the _patience_ , dear," she says when Ginny complains that she wants to know how, too, and it's true.

So Molly shows Hermione how to measure, how to mix, how to set the charms so that the concoction brews at a constant temperature over time, and even lets her in on the special spice mix that is the secret to Molly's especially flavorful butterbeer (it involves cardamom, of all things). When they taste the first batch they have made together, Molly smiles and says she will have to go out to the shed and make sure Arthur tastes it, as it's quite good.

Hermione, finally, relaxes to the tips of her toes.


	10. Adulterants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Butterbeer"

Slughorn has been channelling Mad-Eye Moody ever since the poisoned mead. Even drinks in the Great Hall---no, _especially_ drinks in the Great Hall, ever since the Carrows came---are unilaterally on the receiving end of a few charms designed to reveal adulterants. 

Three months after the Battle of Hogwarts and the day before the school opens for the new school year, the staff has their own end-of-summer celebration in the Great Hall. Slughorn looks around the hall and finally lets down his guard. As they toast the new year, Slughorn smiles broadly and downs his butterbeer. 

And promptly spews liquid everywhere, because it appears that the elves have decided that this year Firewhiskey is a necessary component of all celebratory drinks.


	11. A Dose of Butterbeer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Butterbeer"

Winky doesn't really remember how she became an alcoholic. When she was with the Crouches, she had a bottle of butterbeer on holidays, and enjoyed the flavor but not the subsequent light-headedness. Sometime early during her time at Hogwarts, she discovered that the light-headedness masked the pain of clothes. 

Now Dobby---Dobby! the only one of all the Hogwarts elves to be kind to her, even if he was strange and spoke poorly of his family---is gone. Even though she now drinks two bottles of butterbeer a day, it is not enough to cover the loss of both her family and her only friend.


	12. Being a Haiku Distilling the Essence of Lee Jordan's Quidditch Commentary

"Real nasty, that hit---  
Slytherin has no honor---"  
"Lee! I'm warning you!"


	13. Becoming Part of the Pride

As the Gryffindor and Slytherin players leave their locker rooms and spill out onto the field, Luna makes her lion hat roar. Seamus roars back, Ginny and Hermione whoop, and Neville elbows her with a grin. Although Luna has historically had more theoretical than practical experience with the term _friendship_ , she is gathering data points every day. Today, she feels solid in their company. She stands with her friends in the stands while her friends on the field take flight, and laughs and gets her hat into a roaring fight with Seamus.


	14. Winter is Coming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "winter is coming"

Below him, cold mists spread out over the remote valley that he has lived in for the past year. The moon, only a sliver shy of full, shines down, turning the mists pearlescent and lighting his path. Autumn is giving way to winter, here in the remote Highlands, and he moves closer to civilization with every step.

He shivers when the wind strikes up, and pulls his cloak tighter around him, burying his nose in its generous cowl. The smell of wet wool fills his nostrils, the smell of prey, hock-deep in mud and bleating, and Fenrir Greyback smiles.


	15. Finding an Old Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Avi of Hufflepuff during a Hogsmeade weekend over at Hogwarts is Home on LJ.

In the cold, dark night, the wind blowing over the North Sea, Bellatrix picked up her wand.

Her wand. Her wand. How had they gotten it back? She had thought they broke prisoner's wands. Surely they wouldn't keep them at Azakaban---it couldn't have been recovered before they began the breakout.

She closed her fingers around it carefully, tightly, feeling every ridge in the wood, so familiar but untouched for so long, an old lover run into on a cold night. She could feel the magic pulsing through it, waiting to sing.

She laughed, joyously, and cast the Dark Mark over Azkaban.


	16. At the Start of the Triwizard

Hagrid sat heavily in his chair, and lit the fire in the fireplace with a wave of his umbrella. It had been a long day, he thought, a long and strange day. He could hear noise from the ship in the middle of the lake, and grunted; he hadn't realized that their visitors were going to disturb him throughout the night.

Then there were the neighs and whuffs of the Abraxans. Hagrid didn't mind that noise so much. They were strong beasts, and beautiful; he'd chuckled while watching them guzzle down their single malt. Still, it was unusual to have a herd of giant flying horses pastured outside his house.

And the headmistress. 

She had to be, he thought. She had to be. 

He leaned back in his chair, and reached a hand over to pet Fang on the head. The dog sighed and leaned against Hagrid's knee. Hagrid scratched him behind the ear. It had been a long day indeed.


	17. astroboletos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _astroboletos_ , a. Term for anyone suffering from prolonged summer heat. Origin: Greek, meaning 'star-struck', in reference to the appearance of Sirius A at the start of the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Birthday gift for Martine. ♥

Remus has always preferred the day, has always preferred the sun to all the other stars -- he likes the warmth of it on his skin, likes to lie back in the grass and let light-patterns flicker over his closed eyelids. He likes the way he feels solid and whole and hale under its rays; he can forget, a little bit, what sunset means when the sun is there.

And yet, for twelve years he has eyes only for the second-brightest star in the sky. He misses the warmth of its namesake's skin, and the press of his shoulder in the grass. He misses the way he felt solid, and whole, and hale, and when the sun slinks below the horizon and Sirius rises, he feels, in a deep dark place in his heart, a measure of relief.


End file.
